Lawyers threaten to take 85-year-old woman to court over painting of the Virgin Mary

BRADENTON, Florida, December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) -- A mobile home park is threatening legal action against an 85-year-old Florida woman over an image of the Blessed Mother on the front of her home.

Lawyers for Bradenton Tropical Palms sent Millie Francis a notice on November 9 that she had 30 days to remove a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe or face legal action, the Bradenton Herald reported.

“They’ll have to kill me first,” Francis had said days before receiving the notice regarding the specter of park management forcing her to remove the image.

With the deadline nearing, she told the Herald on Tuesday, “It’s not going anywhere.”

The painting of Our Lady is located on a piece of plywood where Francis’ front window once was.

She requested and received permission in April to have the window removed because the park’s security staff would shine their flashlights into it at night. She also had a neighbor who would look into the window.

Francis, a devout Catholic, painted the image recently in hopes of encouraging anyone who saw it to pray.

“Because I think it’s important to remind people to pray every day, not just once a month, go to church once a month,” she told the Bradenton Herald. “And pray every day because we need it so terribly.”

“We’re losing faith in Our Lady and Our Lord,” Francis said. “Big time. And I’m hoping to bring all this back. I hope it works.”

However, Janet Nowakowski, the property manager for Vanguard Property Management of Tampa, said that while Francis had permission to remove the window, she did not get permission for the painting.

Francis had until October 31 to complete the window replacement, Nowakowski said, and because she did not, Francis must resubmit the project for approval or remove the painting.

Not only did she complete the project on time, Francis said, but there is nothing in the Bradenton Tropical Palms rules about decorating after the fact.

Francis believes the pushback is not about the window replacement but her decision to paint the Blessed Mother, and that she is the target of discrimination.

Other neighbors have secular figures in their yards, she noted.

“There’s all kinds of stuff out there, but this is because I’m Catholic and it’s wrong,” Francis said. “With all the things going on in the world, I would think there would be more important things to worry about than this.”

Nowakowski has said she doesn’t have any issue with the content of the painting.

“Numerous” people have complained about the painting for various reasons, Nowakowski said.

Francis said there are many people who come knocking on her door “that absolutely thought it was beautiful.”

Francis had contacted legal aid for help, not knowing her rights in the matter, but was told they couldn’t help.

The fact the park is determined to take the painting down is causing her stress, and Francis is in the process of reaching out to the Knights of Columbus at the suggestion of her priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, who has blessed the painting.

“If I have to go to court, then I have to go,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t take this anymore, but I can’t see it coming down. It’s not hurting anyone. They don’t have to look at it if they don’t like it, so I don’t understand why they are against me, but it’s going to stay.”

Since publishing the story in early November, the Bradenton Herald heard from several readers via email questioning why anybody would trouble an elderly woman regarding her religious beliefs.

One reader wrote a letter to the editor on the issue.

Tropical Palms resident Jackie Freeman said the park is setting a dangerous precedent considering a number of residents have various religious or mythical figures in their yards, such as angels and fairies.

The park’s lack of specific restrictions and taking legal action against Francis would effectively create a “religious-free environment,” Freeman said, prohibiting everything up to and including a sign reading “Smile, God loves you.”

“Without covenant restrictions against the display of religious symbols,” Freeman wrote, “an owner should be permitted to freely erect a religious display on their living unit.”

Francis didn’t know what she wanted to do in the window space at first, she said, but felt called one day at Mass to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe.

“I was at church during Mass just before Communion,” she said. “To be honest, I wasn’t concentrating much on Mass because I was preoccupied with, what am I going to do with this board?”

“I said, ‘Please dear Lord, help me decide on what I want to do,’” she continued. “I don’t want to say I had a vision or anything like that, but felt enlightened and received the inspiration from our Lady of Guadalupe to paint her image. So I promised that I would.”

Francis believes she was called to paint the image of Our Lady because of all of the hate in the world and the religious persecutions that are occurring.

“Maybe it will help people pray,” Francis said. “I don’t know, but I hope it will. I put it up there to encourage people to say a Hail Mary every day because Lord almighty we need prayers in this world right now. There is so much evil going on out there.”

Even though the controversy is draining her energy, Francis is determined to keep the painting where it is.

“I’m going to put my Christmas decorations up and I’m going to put a laser light right on her,” she said. “If they don’t like it, too bad. I don’t want her destroyed and I’m not going to let it happen.”

“I never knew people could be like this,” Francis added. “In Ohio, we all stuck together and did things for each other. I’m not going to get on my knees and beg to keep it, and that’s what they want.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of Mexico and the Americas as well as the unborn.

One of the earliest Marian apparitions, the Virgin of Guadalupe has special significance for Catholics, in particular the Mexican people and the pro-life movement.

Our Lady appeared as an indigenous woman who was with child, and the apparition resulted in millions of Aztecs converting and being baptized to the Catholic faith in the years after her appearance – putting an end to the human sacrifices, particularly child sacrifices that they had practiced.

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is approaching on December 12. Many Catholics will honor her over several days with Mass, processions, dances, receptions, and traditional Mexican meals.

GAINESVILLE, Florida, December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — Dozens of academics and a coalition of medical, legal and policy organizations representing more than 30,000 health professionals nationwide praised the Trump administration for its efforts to officially uphold the scientific definition of sex on the federal level.

“We applaud the Trump administration's intention to uphold the scientific definition of sex in federal law and policy, such that girls and women will regain their sex-based legal protections, and the human rights of all will be preserved,” the group said in a December 4 letter.

Citing controversial Obama-era impositions of gender ideology into federal policy, the group stated, “Not only is an expanded definition of sex unscientific, but it has also proven harmful.”

The American College of Pediatricians, the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, and the Catholic Medical Association sent the letter, which was also endorsed by 32 legal organizations, policy groups and individuals, including physicians, therapists, academics and bioethicists.

The coalition has also established a petition to uphold the scientific definition of sex in federal law and policy.

Both the letter and the petition are addressed to Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

The groups referenced three things as basis for commending the Trump administration for defending the scientific definition of sex at the federal level.

First was the February 2017 rescinding by the Departments of Justice and Education of the unprecedented “guidance” imposed in May 2016 by the Obama administration to expand the definition of sex in Title IX to include gender identity.

Second was the Department of Justice October 2017 clarification that gender identity is not legally included in the definition of sex related to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

And most recently was the leaked memo in October from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that expressed the scientific definition of sex and called on government agencies to adopt a clear, uniform definition based “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the memo stated, and “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

The coalition writing the Trump administration said the memo “leads us to believe that HHS is continuing this trend and leading an effort to have a uniform, scientifically based, definition of sex across the various agencies.”

“We write to applaud and encourage this effort,” the group stated.

In February 2016, the Obama administration issued “guidance” to all public schools that they should allow members of one biological sex to use the showers, locker rooms, and restrooms, and also stay in the same hotel rooms during field trips as member of the opposite sex or risk losing federal funding.

Obama had also moved in 2014 to include gender identity in the legal definition of sex for the purpose of federal Title IX civil rights.

The December 4 letter to the Trump administration went on to detail specifics of how an expanded definition of gender is both dangerous and not informed about science. Citing medical references, the coalition explained that:

Sex is a narrowly defined biological term;

Human sex is a binary, biologically determined, and immutable trait from conception forward;

Sex differences are real and consequential;

Individuals who identify as transgender deserve optimal medical treatment that is influenced by biological sex;

Sex is not a spectrum; congenital disorders are not additional sexes;

Gender identity is not an immutable trait found anywhere in the body, brain, or DNA;

The claim that upholding the scientific definition of sex will increase suicide among transgender identifying people is false;

Upholding the scientific definition of sex in law and policy protects everyone's right to privacy, protection and equal treatment, especially that of girls and women;

As the biological men and women they are, transgender-identified individuals possess the same human dignity and right to the equal protection of the law as all Americans.

“For all of these reasons, it is with unwavering conviction that we urge the Trump administration to uphold the original scientific meaning and legal intent of the term ‘sex’ in federal law and policy.”

IRELAND, December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Ireland’s new abortion regime took one step closer to reality Wednesday, as the lower house of the country’s parliament passed a controversial abortion bill without amendments pro-lifers had sought to protect conscience rights.

The legislation allows elective abortions up to 12 weeks, abortions for “risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant woman” up until viability (including “mental health”), abortions at any point in “emergency” cases of “immediate risk” to the mother’s “life or health,” and abortions at any point in cases where doctors diagnose a “condition affecting the foetus that is likely to lead to the death of the foetus either before, or within 28 days of, birth.”

"I look forward to a time - not far away now - when we will be able to assure women experiencing crisis pregnancies that they will be looked after here at home, where they need not fear that they will be stigmatised for their choices or lack the support they and their families need from our health service,” Health Minister Simon Harris said in celebration of the news.

"We won. Ye lost,” pro-abortion TD Kate O'Connell taunted her pro-life colleagues, according toThe Independent. “It must be hurting." The Pro-Life Campaign of Ireland responded that her “juvenile” remarks were “unbecoming of any serious politician.”

Harris and Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar have also called for “exclusion zones” to prevent pro-life protests around abortion centers, and for publicly-funded Catholic hospitals to be forced to commit abortions.

For months, many pro-life doctors, nurses, and midwives have spoken out against the conscience implications for medical workers who don’t want to be complicit in taking preborn life, but the group Ireland’s Nurses & Midwives for Life said this week that Harris and opposition leader Michael Martin have ignored multiple requests to meet with them.

“We are appalled that humane amendments in relation to pain relief for late abortions, resuscitation measures where a baby survives an abortion, the exclusion of disability, race or gender as grounds for abortion, parental notification and dignified disposal of remains have not been supported by any Fine Gael TDs,” the group lamented.

The pro-life nurses’ experience stands in stark contrast to Harris purporting to “thank all those people who recognised the need for our discourse to be respectful of differing views” during his remarks Thursday.

“In Minister Harris’ fifteen-minute speech in the House when he introduced the bill on the fourth of October last year, it was very telling that the words ‘baby,’ ‘child,’ ‘unborn,’ and ‘mother’ were not used even once. Not once,” Sen. Rónán Mullen said Thursday. “That tells us how much concern this legislation has for children in the womb, or indeed for any concept of motherhood or family.

“The fact that ending the life of any human being is seen as some great advance in human rights or healthcare is grotesque in the extreme,” he declared.

"For the most part, the voices of those who voted against abortion in May's referendum have been ignored,” the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference said Wednesday of the debate in the chamber. "Even what many people would have deemed to have been very reasonable legislative amendments seeking to provide women with information and to prohibit abortion on the grounds of sex, race or disability, have been rejected."

The abortion legalization bill now goes to the parliament’s upper house, the Seanad Éireann, for consideration.

CBC: Canadians should have ‘fewer’ children to stop ‘climate crisis’

Screen grab of chart from CBC's Nov. 28, 2018 article titled 'Don't think you can make a difference in the climate crisis? Meet some experts who say you're wrong.' CBC.ca / screen grab

TORONTO, December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Canada’s tax-funded national broadcaster has run a report telling Canadians that the best way to “mitigate” what it called the “climate crisis” is to “have a smaller family.”

In a Nov. 28, 2018 article illustrating how Canadians can “mitigate climate change”, the CBC claimed that at the top of the list of the “four biggest ways individuals can help cut down on emissions” is for parents to “have one fewer child.”

The CBC underscores in a chart created in part by Seth Wynes, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, that while avoiding air travel will spare the environment 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, and living car-free will reduce carbon emissions by 2.4 tons, having “one fewer child” will save the earth from 58.7 tons of C02.

One Canadian pointed out over Twitter how Canada’s official network has been caught in a trap of conflicting ideologies.

“Behold, the wisdom of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (our liberal government propaganda arm),” tweeted writer Stephanie Nicolas of Belleville, Ontario. "Stop having children, it's bad for the environment, but we need mass immigration because there's no one to fund our pensions."

Life and family leaders have warned for years about a coming “demographic winter” as a result of the plummet in birthrates. They point out that no economy can withstand an inverted pyramid where there are more old people than younger people. Places like Japan are now experiencing that a low fertility rate and an aging population is bankrupting the social security system and leading to economic stagnation.

Canada’s birth rate is about 1.61 child per woman, which is below the replacement figure. Canada last had a viable birth rate in 1971, when the average number of children per woman was 2.1.

What the CBC report failed to mention was that the world’s greatest producer of CO2 is child-unfriendly China, who in 2015 produced over 9 billion metric tons of the stuff, primarily through burning coal. In contrast, Canada produced only 549.23 million metric tons, which represents only 2% of the world’s overall so-called "carbon footprint."

Carleton University professor Michael Hart argued in his 2016 book Hubris that climate change advocacy is based on “poor science."

“I learned that both domestic and international actors had succeeded in using the poorly understood science of climate change to advance an ambitious environmental agenda focused on increasing centralized control over people’s daily lives,” he told LifeSiteNews in an August 2016 interview.

Hart made the case that “climate change” has become the Left’s new Trojan horse for ramming through its social agenda on an unsuspecting population.

“Left-wing politicians discovered in climate change renewed ways to press their agenda of social and economic justice through coercive government programs. As John Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, sees it, ‘The alarmists have learned well from the past. They saw what motivates policy makers is not necessarily just hard science, but a well-orchestrated symphony of effort … announce a disaster; cherry pick some results; back it up with computer modeling; proclaim a consensus; stifle the opposition; take over the process and control the funding; and roll the policy makers,’” he said.

OTTAWA, December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has finally announced a change to a controversial condition of its summer jobs program, but pro-lifers say the “concession” still imperils the conscience rights and religious liberty of pro-life Canadians.

The Canada Summer Jobs Program offers money to groups that hire students for summer positions. Controversy erupted this year when Trudeau’s government added a requirement that participating organizations sign an attestation that their “core mandate” agrees with a variety of left-wing positions, including a “right” to abortion – regardless of whether the organization is involved in political advocacy against abortion.

Dozens of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders have condemned the attestation as a “religious or ideological test,” and thousands of Catholics have written to the government in protest.

Next summer the government will stop requiring applicants to affirm their “core mandate” is pro-abortion, the Canadian Pressreports. Instead, it will ask applicants to verify that the specific job seeking funding does not infringe on “sexual or reproductive health” access, or otherwise restrict Canadians’ “rights.”

Trudeau has repeatedly insisted that the attestation merely enforces fidelity to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but the charter does not reference abortion directly or indirectly. It does recognize “fundamental freedoms” of “conscience and religion,” however, as well as “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.”

“They felt this was about their values and beliefs and not about the jobs and the performances of the students in particular roles and we took that to heart,” Labour Minister Patty Hajdu claimed. “We’ve been working on making sure we do what we intended to do, which is to stand up for the rights of Canadians…but that we also work closely with faith-based groups and others so that they can see how they themselves would fit into this program.”

“This is a program about quality jobs for kids, so we shouldn’t be asking kids in any circumstance to do work that would put them into a position to have to undermine or restrict the rights of others,” she continued. “That’s not the kind of job experience we would want young people to have, especially for, often times, their first” job.

Other changes to the program are that young people filling the jobs no longer have to be students, and can be anywhere from 15 to 30 years old.

But while organizations will no longer be asked to specifically sign a statement that violates their beliefs, pro-life leaders say the conditions still impose a heavy burden on pro-life consciences.

“From the way the media is describing it, it will still ask the employer or non-profit group to attest that ‘the job’ the student is being hired for ‘will not undermine or restrict reproductive rights,’” Campaign Life Coalition Director of Political Operations Jack Fonseca told LifeSiteNews. “If that or similar wording is part of the new attestation, no genuine Christian believer can sign it [...] because it indirectly gives your assent to the false idea that killing babies in the womb is a genuine ‘right.’”

“There is no authentic right to kill preborn children, no matter what the government, the courts or the law say,” he explained. “For a religious leader or Christian Church to indirectly affirm that they believe abortion is a right, would be a scandal and a betrayal.”

Fonseca also explained that the requirement “still imposes a direct values test” on employers who are still satisfying the program’s original purpose. “So long as the students we hire are learning valuable job skills in office administration, marketing, technical writing, computer skills, graphic design, and the many other transferable job skills learned by working for us, what business is it of Trudeau’s?” he asked.

Fonseca suspects that this latest move is meant to “pre-empt a backlash at the ballot box by Christian voters and those of other faiths,” because the prime minister “knows that he made the mistake of showing his teeth to people of faith last year when he introduced the pro-abortion/transgenderism loyalty oath.”

“But religious leaders must not be fooled,” he warned. “Trudeau is still every bit the enemy of the cross. He has fully transformed the Liberal Party into a hate group against Christians, and while this tweak to the Summer Jobs program is designed to look like a reprieve from anti-Christian discrimination, believe me, it’s only a temporary gesture that will be retracted should he win another term in 2019.

“Should he hold onto power in 2019, I guarantee you that we will witness the expansion of the pro-abortion & transgenderism loyalty oath into many other federal programs,” Fonseca predicted.

Pharmacist sentenced for killing wife to start new family with gay lover, frozen embryos

MIDDLESBROUGH, United Kingdom, December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A homosexual pharmacist in England has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering his wife so he could take her frozen embryos and start a new “family” in Sydney, Australia with his male lover.

Thirty-seven-year-old Mitesh Patel has been convicted of strangling his wife Jessica Patel to death with a plastic bag, TheGuardianreports, the culmination of a plan five years in the making. He reportedly wanted out of his marriage as part of a longstanding desire to escape his Hindu upbringing; the murder would have left him with £2 million from his wife’s life insurance to start that new life.

According to the prosecution, Jessica had known for years that Mitesh was cheating on her with a man he had met on the homosexual dating app Grindr. What she didn’t know is that he spent years researching how to kill her, via internet searches for queries such as “insulin overdose,” “plot to kill my wife, do I need a co-conspirator,” “hiring hitman UK,” and “how much methadone will kill you?”

Eventually, he subdued her with an insulin injection at their home, strangled her to death, and then ransacked the home to stage an apparent robbery on which he could blame her death. He then called the authorities to report the “attack,” pretending to tell his already-dead wife “come on baby, wake up” (part of the call can be heard in the following video). During the trial, he later claimed he didn’t attempt to resuscitate her because he had lost his “bearings.”

Patel’s story unraveled when police discovered insulin syringes, one of which was empty, in his laptop bag and his aforementioned internet searches. They also took the innovative step of examining the health apps on his and his wife’s iPhones, which tracked their every step throughout the day.

Through the app, they discovered that Mitesh had moved all over the house after killing her to stage the fake burglary, while Jessica’s phone had been still along with her dead body until her husband moved it outside to simulate it having been dropped by a burglar.

All in all, the trial took three weeks and the jury took just under three hours to deliver a guilty verdict.

“You are a selfish man, business-driven, wanting a very successful life and wishing to retire at 40,” Justice James Goss admonished the defendant. “You were also wanting to commit to a life with another man on your own terms and you well knew that insurance policies would realise £2m on Jessica’s death.”

Texts from Patel to his lover Dr. Amit Patel such as “you know this plan, do you think we will succeed?” and “I’m telling you, her days are marked,” suggest the latter was aware of the former’s murderous intentions. But so far, police are saying only that they have “spoken to Amit,” and that further details would “unduly prejudice any further proceedings, should they ever be taken against him."

Mitesh Patel said he married Jessica because she loved him and the union would be a convenient cover for his homosexuality, according to the BBC. She had obtained three embryos from three rounds of in-vitro fertilization, but was killed before they could be implanted. Mitesh and Amit planned to raise at least one of the children together themselves.

“She knew exactly who her killer was and he mercilessly ignored her attempts to fight for her own life as he ended it,” Jessica’s younger sister Divya said in a statement. “We can only imagine the fear and panic she must have felt, knowing herself this was it. Thinking of that moment makes our hearts so heavy.”

“Only Mitesh himself can truly answer why he did this,” she continued. “Everything he has done has been purely for selfish reasons. He could have divorced her, taken everything he wanted, he did not need to take her life. He had no right to take this evil, cruel and malicious step.”

The Rosary of Modern Sorrows with its 'rainbow' 5th decade, created by Contemplative Rebellion. James MartinSJ / TwitterDescription of the fifth 'rainbow' decade from the Rosary of Modern Sorrows. contemplativerebellion.com / screen grab

December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-LGBT Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin is promoting on social media a rosary with “rainbow” beads for one of the decades which are to be used, the rosary’s creators say, to pray for the “full acceptance” of homosexual couples.

The “Rosary of Modern Sorrows,” created by a so-called Catholic social justice group Contemplative Rebellion, “invites us into guided meditation on the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters in the U.S. and around the world,” the group’s website states. The group says it creates religious “pieces of jewelry” to “break down the barriers that separate faith, race, social status, and income inequality.”

The suggested prayer for the “rainbow” fifth decade states: "We pray for a welcoming of LGBTQ people by all churches, temples, mosques, and synagogues. We pray for LGBTQ couples, their children, and extended families. We Pray that they may be supported and loved, with full acceptance as people truly created in the image of God, a creation that God saw as ‘good', and who deserve to live every aspect of life to the fullest.”

On Monday, Fr. Martin tweeted his endorsement of the rosary and its message.

“Dear friends: No one asked me (or paid me) to share these, but I thought you'd like to see two new works of art: the Rosary of Modern Sorrow (which invites us to pray for various types of sufferings) and a new (Middle Eastern) Holy Family Christmas card,” he tweeted.

Dear friends: No one asked me (or paid me) to share these, but I thought you'd like to see two new works of art: the Rosary of Modern Sorrow (which invites us to pray for various types of sufferings) and a new (Middle Eastern) Holy Family Christmas card. https://t.co/PPDUM35wfdpic.twitter.com/2yzgRIsrcI

The Catholic Church, following the words of Scripture and its constant, 2,000-year tradition, teaches that homosexual acts are gravely immoral, constituting a sin worthy of eternal punishment.

“They are contrary to the natural law,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “Under no circumstances can they be approved,” it adds.

Michael Hichborn, founder and president of the Lepanto Institute, told LifeSiteNews that Fr. Martin was promoting "sacrilege."

"What Fr. Martin is promoting on social media is nothing short of sacrilege. This gross misuse of the Holy Rosary not only reduces its sublime mysteries to a series of cheap political points, but is designed specifically to pray for acceptance of one of the four sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance," he said,

"Sodom was swallowed by a raging inferno into the bowels of the earth because this particular sin is so offensive to God, and it is difficult to see how anyone who promotes it so heavily could escape a similar fate," he added.

He supports homosexual men kissing each other during the sign of peace at Mass, says that a Catholic attending a same-sex “wedding” is like attending a Jewish wedding, and suggests that his critics are secretly homosexual themselves.

Fr. Martin says homosexual priests should “come out” about their sexual proclivities, but has publicly declined to say whether he himself is homosexual.

Last month at the U.S. Bishops’ Conference in Baltimore, Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland chastised his brother bishops for offering a platform to a certain traveling priest who speaks a pro-homosexual message. He did not spectifically name Fr. Martin.

“There’s a priest that travels around now basically saying that he doesn’t [believe the doctrine of the Church],” he said, “and he seems to be very well promoted in various places.”

“Brothers, I think part of the fraternal correction, or the fraternal support, we offer each other is to say, 'Can that be presented in our diocese? That same-sex ‘marriage’ is just fine, and the Church will one day grow to understand that,'” the Bishop said to his brother bishops gathered for their General Assembly.

“It’s part of our deposit of faith that we believe homosexual activity is immoral,” he added.

“It is a terrible problem for the Church, precisely because some of the leadership is pushing the line that Father James Martin has been pushing in his books and speeches, which is that God made you this way,” Murray said. “And the assertions made 'God made me a homosexual, God made me a bisexual, God made me a transgender person' – this is not true.”

Editor's note: Pete Baklinski contributed to this report.

Note: Follow LifeSite's new Catholic twitter account to stay up to date on all Church-related news. Click here: @LSNCatholic

Virginia county wants to nix law allowing homeschooling for religious reasons

December 6, 2018 (Home School Legal Defense Foundation) – "Don't try to solve a problem that doesn't exist. I ask you not to repeal the religious exemption," said Paul Millhouse at a Loudoun County School Board meeting last Tuesday. The multitude of hands raised in silent applause after he finished speaking revealed the audience's agreement with his statement.

Millhouse, who lives in Loudoun County, was one of over two dozen Virginia residents who came to the meeting to defend their right to homeschool under the state's religious exemption to compulsory school attendance.

On November 13, Loudoun County Public Schools announced that they intend to ask the Virginia Legislature to alter the religious exemption, under which thousands of families currently homeschool.

The county board's proposal seeks legislation that would require families to educate their children only through "an alternative public, private, parochial and/or approved home instruction setting."

Curtailing Freedom

If the exemption were changed in this way, parents would no longer be permitted to opt out of the public school system on the basis of their religious convictions.

As Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel Scott Woodruff explained, "This action is very disturbing because it means that the school district wants new ways to control religious-exempt families."

Woodruff had notified homeschool families about the resolution and encouraged them to attend the school board meeting.

The public response was overwhelming – at least two dozen people spoke, and even more came to support the speakers. So many people registered to comment that the school board cut the standard two-minute speaking time in half.

People rushed to make their points before the buzzer signaled the close of each person's speaking time. The comments came from individuals of all different ages and backgrounds. Some were seasoned homeschooling parents, while others were homeschooled students. Many speakers said they homeschooled under the religious freedom exemption.

Speaking styles ranged from emotional to cool and composed. Some told personal stories, while others used statistics and history to craft their arguments.

More than a Choice

Yet a common thread woven through all the presentations was a firm commitment to preserve one of the fundamental rights upon which our nation was built: religious freedom. This public comment period served as a powerful reminder to the school board that, for many, homeschooling is more than just a matter of school choice; it is a matter of religious freedom.

Millhouse explained that, for him, homeschooling his children is a calling from God. As Christians, he and his wife believe that "the Lord holds us accountable for what and how we teach our children."

Removing the religious exemption would allow the state to interfere with religious-exempt families' educational choices. The school board justified their proposal by alleging that they only want to make sure that children are getting a satisfactory education.

First of all, Scott Woodruff pointed out, no empirical evidence suggests that homeschooled children are currently lacking a satisfactory education. Secondly, under the school board's proposal the district – not the parent – would become responsible for determining what a "satisfactory education" looks like.

Citizens throughout Loudon County recognized this threat and refused to watch in silence as the school board discussed compromising their rights. Although we have yet to find out what the board will decide, the message of individuals who spoke out at the school board meeting undoubtedly will impact the school board's decision-making process. And the public comments serve as a reminder to us all that when we stand up for the right to homeschool, we are also standing up for religious freedom.

As Woodruff said, "Parents must be empowered to educate their children according to their faith."

The man behind American Horror Story, Glee, Nip/Tuck, and more announced his latest plans this past weekend during a TrevorLive gala in Los Angeles. TrevorLive is an annual event by an LGBT youth suicide prevention group called The Trevor Project. Murphy’s remarks detailed a far more radical objective, however.

“In 2020, I’m going to create and fund, with corporate sponsorship, a multi-million dollar organization that targets anti-LGBTQ candidates running for office,” Murphy announced, according to Townhall. “Senate and congressional candidates who think they can get votes hurting and discriminating against us – well, we can get votes too.”

Calling the initiative “Pose Gives Back” after his current transgender-heavy show Pose, Murphy singled out Republicans Rep. Steve King of Iowa and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine as examples of “hateful and wrong politicians” he wants to “stop polluting our moral and ethical ether.”

King is an avowed social conservative who has provoked left-wing ire for insisting his fellow Republicans remain opposed to the LGBT agenda. Collins, a pro-abortion lawmaker who has supported same-sex “marriage” since 2014, is a curious target for pro-homosexual activists, though she most recently angered her fellow social liberals by helping confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Murphy continued that he was inspired to see “over 20 anti-LGBTQ right-wing politicians and their horrifying views gone in a day” in November’s midterm congressional elections.

A record number of LGBT candidates ran for office this election cycle, with the winners including bisexual Democrat Kyrsten Sinema for Senate, homosexual Democrat Jared Polis for governor of Colorado, and lesbian Democrat Sharice Davids for House of Representatives. Democrat “Christine” Hallquist, a man who “identifies” as female, lost to pro-abortion Republican Phil Scott in the Vermont governor’s race.

“We are going to send a message which says you cannot make discrimination against us a political virtue anymore,” Murphy threatened. “You can’t keep killing our vulnerable young people by promoting and nationalizing your rural, close-minded anti-constitutional viewpoints.”

The suggestion that opposing LGBT agenda items somehow encourages homosexual teens to commit suicide is particularly noteworthy, considering that former Trevor Project interim CEO David McFarland admitted in 2011 that activists’ heavy media showcasing of “disproportionate rates of suicide and incidences of bullying that affect LBGT young people” can actually increase the risk of suicide by “influenc[ing] someone who is at-risk to assume that taking your own life is what you’re supposed to do next if you are LGBT or bullied.”

In 2012, a series from Murphy, The New Normal at NBC, was actually barred from at least one TV station in Utah because the homosexual-themed sitcom’s crudeness and explicit content were deemed “inappropriate on several dimensions, especially during family viewing time.”

Update: Mr. Vlaming has been fired from his job. For full details, read our latest report here.

WEST POINT, Virginia, December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A high school teacher in the Virginia town of West Point has been placed on paid administrative leave for refusing to refer to a gender-confused student by “trans” pronouns, but other students have rallied in support of him.

Peter Vlaming is a French teacher at West Point High School who found himself in hot water for referring to a female student who considers herself male as “she,” WRIC reports. He says he agreed to honor her masculine name and avoid applying female pronouns to her, but draws the line at using inaccurate male pronouns. That isn’t enough for the powers that be, however.

“Administration is requiring that I use masculine pronouns in any and every context at school,” he said. “I was informed that any further instances of using female pronouns would be grounds for termination.”

The school confirmed it has placed Vlaming on paid administrative leave and will hold a public hearing this afternoon at his request. It claims it “has followed and will continue to follow Virginia Code and all local policies and procedures relating to licensed staff members,” but declined to give further specifics, citing “employee and student confidentiality.”

“Details regarding our recommendations will become public at that hearing,” the statement added.

“I'm just outraged about it,” Forrest Rohde, a junior at the school, told local media. “He's a really nice guy, he wanted to do everything about his students. He really does care about his students. The thing he will not do is change his ways of thoughts and believing in things just to conform to someone else's ideologies.”

“The transgender girl has the right to be whatever she wants but just because she has the right doesn't mean we're...obliged to follow her beliefs,” Rohde continued. The junior is so passionate about Vlaming’s plight that he’s posted signs around the school with messages like “Justice for Vlaming,” “Mr. Vlaming is innocent,” and “Facts don’t care about your feelings,” the catchphrase of conservative pundit Ben Shapiro.

“I see this stuff on the news far away from here,” he explained, “but when it hits close to home and someone's free speech is being violated, I have to step in and say something about it.”

As of the time of this writing, a petition calling for the school district to let Vlaming keep his job has obtained 1,619 out of 2,000 signatures.

“The student's parent complained to the principal and Mr. Vlaming was asked to sign a paper stating he wouldn't refer to the student as a female,” the petition says. “He stated he couldn't promise that he wouldn't ‘slip up’ again because for the previous 2 school years the student identified as a female, still looks like a female and he's not [used] to the student as a male. Therefore Mr. Vlaming was suspended and has since received a letter of termination.”

“Mr. Vlaming doesn't want any attention drawn to the student during this process because he doesn't want the student to get hurt,” the petition added. “HE WANTS TO FOCUS ON THE ADMINISTRATION'S REQUIREMENTS.”

The Christian Postnotes that this isn’t the first case of its kind to arise recently; Shawnee State University philosophy professor Nicolas Meriwether in Ohio is taking his superiors to court for threatening to punish him because he refused to indulge a gender-confused student’s pronoun request.

At Chasco Middle School in Florida, gender ideology is so dominant that a male gym teacher was recently punished for not wanting to watch a female student who “identifies” as a boy undress in a locker room.

Correction Dec. 11, 2018:The headline was corrected to state that it was the Center for Medical progress' director who sought the dismissal of charges, not Daleiden.

December 6, 2018 (Life Legal Defense Foundation) – Life Legal Defense Foundation has filed a motion to dismiss all racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud claims in Planned Parenthood v. Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Planned Parenthood sued CMP and its board of directors shortly after CMP released a series of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the sale of baby parts for profit.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America and nine of its largest affiliates alleged that they had to implement exorbitant security measures following the release of the CMP videos. However, the court has already ruled that Planned Parenthood may only recover damages caused directly by CMP defendants, not those caused by third parties.

In other words, Planned Parenthood has to show that its increased security and other related costs were solely due to David Daleiden, Sandra Merritt, and other investigators infiltrating the abortion giant's inner workings to glean information about its practices related to the trafficking of baby body parts. Daleiden and Merritt used aliases to attend abortion industry conferences and to meet with Planned Parenthood officials at abortion facilities in Colorado and Texas.

Life Legal has learned that Planned Parenthood never took any steps to verify identification or vet the names of conference attendees, including Daleiden. None of the measures Planned Parenthood has implemented since then, including hiring security staff and installing security equipment, would have prevented CMP from gaining access to information about the abortion cartel's practice of trafficking in baby body parts.

In short, the CMP defendants should not be liable for these expenses. "As many courts have recognized, the difference between fraud and racketeering, on the one hand, and undercover investigative journalism, on the other, is the existence of damages," said Life Legal Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. "Without any legally valid damages, the RICO and fraud claims should be dismissed."

Life Legal filed its motion on behalf of Albin Rhomberg, sued for his role as director of CMP. If successful, our arguments will result in the dismissal of racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud claims against all defendants, including David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt.

Microblogging site Tumblr to ban all porn from its platform, LGBTs furious

December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A major microblogging and social networking site has announced it will delete all “adult content” – pornography – on its platform.

Tumblr, which is owned by Verizon, is saying goodbye to “sexual content and nudity” for good, just a few weeks after finding child pornography had made its way onto the platform despite filters meant to prevent such occurrences. Apple’s App store quickly dumped Tumblr after the discovery.

“Photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts” are now banned, according to a statement issued by Tumblr.

Exceptions will be made for classical statues, nudity found in art, as well as “birth or after-birth moments, and health-related situations, such as post-mastectomy.” There will also be an exception for “gender confirmation surgery” photos.

“It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community,” wrote Tumblr CEO Jeff D’Onofrio in a separate statement. “As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.”

“Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content,” said D’Onofrio. “We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.”

The new policy, which goes into effect on December 17, has been roundly criticized by some disgruntled Tumblr users.

“For those that use its site legally, the decision to ban adult content across its entire network is seen as a reluctance to tackle the issues properly,” wrote Dave Lee in a BBC commentary. “Tumblr has decided to give up, rather than do as other sites have done and invest in measures to handle illegal content, while allowing sexual expression.”

Lee said that “Tumblr’s porn ban abandons the marginalized.”

“Unlike typical pornography sites, which overwhelmingly cater to men, and serve an often narrow definition of what is attractive,” continued Lee, “Tumblr has been a home for something else – content tailored at vibrant LGBT communities, or for those with tastes you might not necessarily share with all your friends.”

The LGBT world seemed to take the announcement particularly hard.

“The surprise announcement met with shock, anger and amusement across much of social media,” according to GayStarNews. “Some predict the site will see a massive downturn in traffic. Others have already announced they are closing their Tumblr pages. Some say they will instead post to Twitter, which continues to allow NSFW [not safe for work] content.”

“Some have pointed out that Tumblr was a place for LGBTI communities to explore and share adult material,” continued the GayStarNews report. “Others have said the site made it far too easy for children to view porn.”

Another LGBT-oriented site, The Advocate, went further, pointing out that many are worried that “the new guidelines would lead to a targeted erasure of LGBTQ content.”

“They are trying to disappear us,” tweeted LGBTQ activist Anthony Oliveira, which The Advocate says alludes “to the larger trend of queer erasure happening at the behest of the Trump administration.”

Tumblr was one of the few vectors for grassroots queer art and banning “adult content” will disproportionally stunt and hamstring those artists, so of course that is happening in 2018

“Queer kids, trans kids, abused kids, kids who doesn't [sic] have trustable adults to talk to – they need to learn about their bodies,” continued Moon. “Teaching kids critical thinking + how to access good info is required for a healthy society. Sex bans prevent that.”

Another observer predicted the end is near for Tumblr: “RIP Tumblr. 2007 - 15 minutes after this change is enacted.”

December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Facebook is no longer censoring an image of Santa Claus kneeling before the Baby Jesus that it had deemed “violent or graphic content” after a report on LifeSiteNews about the matter went viral yesterday.

Facebook had obscured the picture, explaining that the “photo was automatically covered so you can decide if you want to see it.”

Users then had to click on a button to uncover the photo. Facebook users are now able to freely share the image without any additional step required to view the image.

After LifeSiteNews wrote yesterday about Facebook’s condemnation of the picture, the story went viral. In less than 18 hours, the story was shared on Facebook over 42,000 times by LifeSiteNews readers and had been viewed about 60,000 times.

The story received a boost when it was picked up by U.S. conservative columnist Todd Starnes and published on his blog today. It was also picked up by The Blaze in a post today.

Interestingly, the image was restored on the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas, aka, Santa Claus, who is revered for his kindness and generosity.

"We also know that people have different sensitivities with regard to graphic and violent content. For that reason, we add a warning label to especially graphic or violent content so that it is not available to people under the age of eighteen and so that people are aware of the graphic or violent nature before they click to see it," the social media giant states.

“We err on the side of allowing content, even when some find it objectionable,” declares Facebook’s community standards, saying it does so in order to maintain a “safe environment” for its “Facebook community.”

It remains unclear why the image of Baby Jesus and Santa was deemed by Facebook to be “violent and graphic content.”

On December 25, Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ that happened 2,018 years ago. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came into the world to save mankind from sin and to open the way to heaven. Christians consider God becoming man the greatest historical event to have ever taken place.

The image in question — of the Savior of the World as an infant and a popularized version of a saint — was originally posted on December 1, 2015, with this accompanying poem explaining the touching illustration:

My dear precious Jesus, I did not mean to take your place,
I only bring toys and things and you bring love and grace.
People give me lists of wishes and hope that they came true;
But you hear prayers of the heart and promise your will to do.
Children try to be good and not to cry when I am coming to town;
But you love them unconditionally and that love will abound.
I leave only a bag of toys and temporary joy for a season;
But you leave a heart of love, full of purpose and reasons.
I have a lot of believers and what one might call fame;
But I never healed the blind or tried to help the lame.
I have rosy cheeks and a voice full of laughter;
But no nail—scarred hands or a promise of the hereafter.
You may find several of me in town or at a mall;
But there is only one omnipotent you, to answer a sinner’s call.
And so, my dear precious Jesus, I kneel here to pray;
To worship and adore you on this, your holy birthday.

The social networking giant has also banned many LifeSiteNews’ pro-life ads, deeming them too “political” because they showed pictures of pregnant mothers, ultrasounds, preborn babies, and the tiny feet of an infant child held in her mother’s hands.

December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A 13-year-old girl spends hours watching poison on YouTube. The dream of every parent? Hardly.

But many parents don't see the unfolding tragedy until it's too late.

It's true that educational videos can be helpful, and many families deeply appreciate those that guide kids through algebra, the geography of Africa, or conversational Spanish.

But there's another kind of online education, one producing horrific outcomes, including early (sometimes deviant) sexual activity. Other results are reflected in abortion statistics, criminal cases – and honest obituaries.

Kids can also binge on suicide ideation (Netflix's 13 Reasons Why, already implicated in several real-life teen suicides). Then there's witchcraft, sorcery, and satanism, readily available in video after video, not to mention popular TV shows like Netflix's revived Sabrina and CW's Charmed.

The online sensation "Slenderman" was the obsession of two middle school girls just arrested at a Florida middle school as they plotted a satanic mass murder of classmates.

And then there are YouTube videos featuring teens who have "transitioned" to the opposite sex. Who watches these? All kinds of adolescents, and the impact is apparently powerful.

Reports in both the U.S. and the U.K. reveal the disastrous impact of binging on gender rebellion videos combined with peer advocacy. The most vulnerable teens, especially those with "progressive" friends, can develop a desire for gender identity change in what is being called "sudden onset gender dysphoria."

Numerous TV and online videos highlight the "journey" of girls prescribed testosterone to create a new male identity. Your son can learn the benefits of reinventing himself as a girl.

For instance, the saga of "Emmie" Smith on YouTube was produced by National Geographic. The title, "Follow a Transgender Teen's Emotional Journey to Womanhood," falsely promises the questioning teen that yes, a person can completely wipe out biological history and start over.

Another video also produced by National Geographic features "Eri, "a boy who underwent surgical mutilation in Thailand.

It's the solution to all my problems, the impressionable teen believes. Of course, these touching tales seldom disclose the sky-high health risks associated with puberty-blockers and opposite sex hormones, the presumed medical tickets to a new gender. It's a huge deception.

In the U.K., two recent stories show the disproportionate gender "transitioning" of students at two schools – one in upscale Brighton and the other in an unnamed location. In Brighton, 40 students in one school now identify as the opposite sex, and another 36 are "gender fluid."

At the unidentified school, a brave educator has gone to the press about her school's gender change advocacy. The teacher revealed that at her school alone, 17 students are in the process of so-called gender "transition," and most of these students are autistic.

She believes that this condition made them easier targets for indoctrination, often by older students who had themselves adopted an opposite-sex identity. In a process resembling pedophilia "grooming," the older students talked the younger into walking the same disordered path.

Most of the younger kids had not shown any previous signs of gender confusion, the teacher said. The influence of the older students combined with YouTube videos glamorizing teen sex change caused this adverse outcome.

This is what aggressive indoctrination in deviance produces – corrupted children. And the most susceptible adolescents are those who already struggle with emotional issues.

At Brown University, a study was published a few months ago revealing a developing trend where some teens declare a newfound desire to identify as the opposite sex without prior gender confusion symptoms. The lead researcher was a non-tenured professor at Brown, and her startling conclusions set off the predictable truth-avoidance objections within the transgender activist community.

As a result of the outcry, Brown University stopped promoting the study, deleted it from its website, and began to question its findings.

According to numerous reports by parents, the study found the same trend: that some teens are seeking a gender-altered identity out of the blue – that is, without years of documented struggle. This study named it "rapid onset gender dysphoria," and it seemed to be produced by heavy social media use, watching numerous videos about so-called "transitioning" to the opposite sex, and also having a circle of non-conforming "LGBTQ" friends. Over 60% had at least one other diagnosed mental health issue.

In other words, it's becoming popular among some teen circles to be a gender-bender, and this researcher found numerous parents who related the same story. Another factor among these teens was marked hostility to normal male-female identities and behavior.

Parents who believe that their household media safeguards are firmly in place can still be stunned about what their kids figure out a way to watch. Pivotal corrupting moments often occur in your child's bedroom when you are asleep or out at a meeting. Or it happens at the home of your child's friend – that new companion who seemed so wholesome when you first met her. Your sweet child may come home a transformed person.

Parents, beware. This age group, and girls especially, can be rapidly and tragically destabilized by wayward friends. They may also view compelling online videos that reel them into a deviant worldview.

And I haven't even mentioned porn.

The online destruction of the soul that results from early pornography exposure is almost impossible to overestimate. It's a cancer within our culture but truly crippling to minors, especially boys.

Online media can be enlightening, fun, connecting. It can also permanently damage the growing human.

The Cellar Door Book store in Riverside, CA.
Pro-LGBT activists soon started to surround Genevieve ...
... and they were not happy with her being there! But she stood up to them.
One of the drag queens came up this close to Genevieve. But she wasn't intimidated at all.
The police really couldn't have been nicer!

December 6, 2018 (MassResistance) – The latest threat to young children from the LGBT movement is a horror show called "Drag Queen Story Hour." And it is happening in libraries and bookstores across the country!

THIS IS HOW ACTIVISM WORKS!

VIDEO: A mother confronts the Drag Queen Story Hour

"Drag Queen Story Hour" (DQSH) events are organized and promoted by national LGBT groups and the left-wing American Library Association. Homosexual men wearing garish women's clothes and makeup read LGBT-themed stories to children as young as three years old!

Most of the so-called drag queens are homosexuals, not "transgenders" (i.e., they don't actually think they're women). Clearly, their interest is pushing the entire spectrum of LGBT behavior on children.

Most people are revolted by this but are afraid to do anything. But not our MassResistance activists! Once again, we were on the ground to confront it.

They admit: "We are trying to groom the next generation."

These homosexual activists are very open about their goals. Their own literature says that their purpose is to "give kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models" and to encourage young children to "defy rigid gender restrictions." They want the vulnerable minds of very young children to accept destructive LGBT behaviors as normal.

As LifeSiteNews recently reported, a homosexual drag queen in Louisiana told a local city council meeting, "We are trying to groom the next generation." To the LGBT movement, the Judeo-Christian view of men and women is repugnant and must be countered.

The "drag queen" event comes to Riverside, CA

Riverside, California, is a relatively conservative area in a very blue state. It's the kind of place that the LGBT movement likes to target. Usually they choose a public library, but this time it was at a bookstore – the Cellar Door bookstore – not far from the center of town. It has a prominent children's section and regularly schedules story events for local children – though not like this one!

They advertised the event for Oct. 27, right before Halloween. In the weeks leading up to the event, local MassResistance parents called, emailed, leafletted, and even talked to the owner personally to try to convince her not be part of this horrible agenda targeting young children. But she refused to budge. It went on as scheduled.

Parents fight back: Here's how you do pro-family activism!

The morning of the event, a MassResistance mother, Genevieve, along with another activist, Jesse, walked in with their cell phone cameras. Genevieve stood near the front and began videoing the "drag queens" as they made their presentation. The man stayed in the back to video their interactions with Genevieve.

Before long the bookstore owner and some other pro-LGBT activists confronted Genevieve and surrounded her, and the scene began to get chaotic. The owner told Genevieve to leave, but she refused. "You advertised this as a public event," she said. "And I'm the public."

She was fearless and didn't mince words. (This is very important – most pro-family people are afraid to express their justified outrage.) Being very firm and (mostly) polite, Genevieve told them exactly what she and so many others think about what they are doing to children. Judging by their reaction, nobody in the room had ever been rebuked that directly.

A few of the pro-LGBT activists brought out a curtain and held it up to block Genevieve from filming the drag queens. Then one of the drag queens came over to try to "dialogue" with her. Both our MassResistance activists stood their ground the whole time.

Clearly, they were all rattled by Genevieve's direct words. Not surprisingly, the bookstore owner claimed that the outrage against the event was "hate" – and what the drag queens were doing to children was "loving tolerance."

Soon the police arrived. Genevieve and Jesse walked out the door with them. Standing outside of the shop, she calmly explained to the police what was going on inside and why she and Jesse did what they did. The police actually seemed supportive of them – and were certainly not hostile.

Genevieve and Jesse had made their point in a big way. Genevieve had livestreamed her video on Facebook and it quickly went viral.

The word REALLY spreads as the media picks it up

The social media storm erupted about the confrontation, and a few days later the Los Angeles NBC-TV station called her and they interviewed her.

The TV report was biased, but not extremely so. Genevieve got some good words in. As usual with pro-LGBT liberals (most who were referred to only as "parents"), the shop owner and the drag queen relied on the tired "hate speech versus love and tolerance" line and refused to deal with what they were really doing to children.

With the social media and TV coverage, our California MassResistance activists definitely woke up a lot of people and made a strong statement that got the attention of the opposition as well as our supporters! A lot more people in Southern California now know what's going on – and that there are people unafraid to oppose it!

I went to Wheaton to talk abortion. Student govt. denounced me, said talk made some feel ‘unsafe’

December 6, 2018 (Radiance Foundation) – For Christ and His Kingdom. That's the motto featured prominently throughout Wheaton College.

But what happens when it's not about Christ or His Kingdom?

I found that out recently after being invited by Wheaton College Republicans to speak on something I'm deeply familiar with – abortion and race. As someone conceived in rape yet adopted and loved into a multiracial family of 15, I have a rather unique take on this. I love actual diversity. As a biracial individual, it's literally in my blood.

I presented a multimedia talk entitled: "Black Lives Matter In and Out of the Womb" (see video) which provided a perspective that is rarely heard. I wanted to compel students to critically think.

Instead, some wanted to silence the message and smear the messenger.

The Student Government Association (SGA), reportedly with the help of two staff members (Peter Hansen and Crystal Cartwright) of the Office of Student Activities, sent out a dishonest, campus-wide email denouncing me and the hope-filled, fact-based, Biblically-sound presentation. Signed by student leaders Lauren Rowley (Student Body President), Tyler Waaler (Student Body Vice President) and Sammie Shields (EVP of Community Diversity), the letter claimed that my comments "made many students, staff and faculty of color feel unheard, underrepresented and unsafe on our campus."

Of course, they didn't identify me as a "person of color" (isn't everyone a color?). In my emailed response to SGA and administration leaders, I reminded them that my presentation was about those who are always unheard, always underrepresented and actually unsafe – the unborn.

But let this sink in. Sharing a different perspective (aka speaking truth) made "many" feel "unsafe". Wheaton, are you teaching students to fear or to think?

Only one of those five people involved in this letter of denouncement even attended the event (Sammie Shields). The presentation was 50 minutes, followed by nearly an hour of Q&A and discussion. How was anyone "unheard" or "underrepresented"?

I asked Philip Ziesemer, the Founder of the College Republicans, his reaction to SGA's attack. "I'm disappointed by the school's response because I do not believe Wheaton College wants to restrict students from taking part in open dialogue...I believe free speech is threatened when someone with a different point of view is accused – in print – of making students feel 'unsafe' and 'underrepresented.' I wish the school would have responded by encouraging students to think critically, discuss the message from both sides, and challenge themselves on the content presented."

Sadly, it was clear that even on an evangelical Christian campus, truth is anathema to those who deify "diversity". In a presentation on what Jesse Jackson once called "black genocide", those who prefer activism over factivism chose to demonize and distort. The talk focused on the hypocrisy of the #BlackLivesMatter movement's leadership and its announced solidarity with the leading killer in the black community – Planned Parenthood – where 247 black lives are killed by the abortion giant every single day. I pointed out several disturbing policy platform positions (see www.M4BL.net) that are, inarguably, hostile to Christianity such as the negation of fathers, the promotion of radical LGBTQ ideology, and lack of any call for racial reconciliation.

I refuse to bow to groupthink. And that never goes over well with those who think "diversity" means ideological conformity.

When you can't prove the content wrong, the tactic is to make things up. I can't rebut every lie I've heard and seen posted on social media since my November 14th presentation. Some have claimed that I said, "no one cares what the KKK believes", "racism doesn't exist anymore", and "women should think twice about reporting sexual assault." Of course, I never said any of those things. One of the student leaders (Sammie Shields) made the bizarre claim, in order to bolster his false narrative about what I said about the KKK, that "there was a lynching in Mississippi last week". Really? Wouldn't there be at least one news article on that? But it doesn't matter. "Diversity"!

Victimhood is potent.

The story has now become the "hurt" and "grieving" students. It's not about the slaughter of 2,500 innocent human lives every day in this country through the violence of abortion. This is the dangerous consequence of placing the emotional above the Eternal.

And all the while, the Wheaton administration has chosen to be publicly silent which enables more of the #fakenews to emerge.

The Wheaton Record tried to justify SGA's irresponsible letter of condemnation. The school paper simply casts me as "controversial". Being prolife is controversial. Being a Christian is controversial. They referenced my speech at Harvard as an example similar to Wheaton – an event where pro-abortion activists melted down throughout the event because they hate a pro-life worldview. That was nothing like Wheaton. Then they cited my speech at Vicksburg High School where the administration published defamatory statements on Facebook and in a school-wide email to students and parents saying I didn't deliver the presentation that was approved. The Wheaton Record doesn't tell you that less than two weeks later the school issued a formal apology for lying about all of it. They praised me for being a "dynamic motivating speaker who touched the hearts of many in the audience."

Do you see a pattern here at Wheaton? Some want "diversity" and faux "unity" so much they're willing to sacrifice the truth, no matter whom it actually hurts.

Vice President of Student Development, Paul Chelsen, and Provost Margaret Diddams only responded to our communications fifteen days after the presentation. That was only because our third email indicated we'd publish an article about it all. They, then, agreed to discuss this whole matter. When we requested that one of our Board members be able to join the off-the-record conversation, they refused to talk at all.

The school administration chose not to pursue a Matthew 18 model of conflict resolution and allowed a fellow evangelical Christian to be slandered and treated like the enemy. They could've made this a powerful learning opportunity for the entire school.

When St. Thomas Aquinas had a foretaste of heaven on St. Nicholas’ feast day

December 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – As we know from Divine Revelation, the ultimate goal of our pilgrimage of faith in this life is the face-to-face vision of God, the beatific vision, in the world to come. What will heaven be like? St. Thomas Aquinas spells it out in a memorable phrase: “Perfect vision, full embracing, and the clinging of consummated love.” The Christian longs to see God, longs to be united with Him forever.

God delights in Himself eternally, He rejoices in His own infinite goodness. He is His own happiness, God and bliss are one and the same. Our happiness is nothing other than to be raised up into this blessed life of His, this life that He is.

And how do we get there? What is the path we follow?

St. Thomas, citing St. John Damascene, uses the image of fire to describe the effects of eating the Eucharist in a soul well-disposed for it: “The fire of that desire which is in us, taking ignition from the burning coal (that is, from this sacrament) will burn up our sins and light up our hearts, so that by participation of the divine fire we may be set on fire and deified.”

Aquinas goes on to say in his own words:

The proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, that it might be said with the Apostle, “I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). … Through this sacrament’s power the soul gains spiritual nourishment, for the soul is gladdened and, in a way, inebriated with the sweetness of divine goodness, as we read: “Eat, friends, and drink, and be drunk, my dearly beloved” (Cant 5:1).

Thus, the answer is: we eat and drink our way to heaven!

In the Dominican tradition to which St. Thomas belonged, there is a strong emphasis on eating and drinking the Word of God, on feasting and even—in a spiritual sense—getting drunk on heavenly wine. Even sober St. Thomas speaks this way: the culmination of Christian theology is mystical drunkenness, sobria ebrietas.

Towards the end of his life, Friar Thomas was known to weep copiously during the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice. It was obvious that, young though he was (not yet 50), the Lord was ready to call him to Himself, to the eternal wedding feast. While Friar Thomas was offering Mass for the feast of St. Nicholas 745 years ago today, on December 6, 1273, God revealed Himself to the saint in a vision that shattered his writing career and left him, for the remaining three months of his life, longing for the reality that had been disclosed to him. He had drunk so abundantly of the Lord’s sweetness that he could say: “All that I have written seems like straw to me, compared with what I have seen.”

Indeed, we can understand what he means: to a lover, would not all written notes seem like straw, compared with the presence of one’s beloved, in person, face-to-face?

It was Jesus who, at the Last Supper, drawing nearer to us in His friendship than any earthly lovers could ever draw close to each other, changed bread and wine into His Body and Blood, in fulfillment of the promise He had made: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life . . . He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me” (Jn. 6:54, 56–57).

Our Lord is talking about a total, if gradual, change of heart, mind, soul, and strength—an affectionate intimacy, a close-knit sympathy produced by living and suffering, dying and rising together. This dying and rising begins in the sanctuary of the soul: as we read in St. Paul, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2); “we destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). The person who is feeding upon sacred mysteries and gaining nourishment from them already has one foot in heaven, though the vision is veiled.

The experience of St. Thomas Aquinas on the feast of St. Nicholas demonstrates to us that Christian life derives its inner energy from the mystical encounter with Christ in the holy sacraments, finds rest in His intimate friendship, and attains ultimate glory in the face-to-face vision that puts all our efforts and sufferings in this life into perspective.

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